Back from the wilderness

A long long time and many long cramped “bus” rides ago, we left the lovely little town of Luang Prabang for an eight and a half hour boat ride to Nong Khiaw. A highlight of the trip was the glimpse it provided into the lives of the people who live on Laos’ rivers. All the way there were people puttering by in little wooded canoes, fishing, searching - with scuba goggles - for shell fish and children bathing, playing and backflipping off the sandy banks into the water. There were also loads of water buffaloes, who wallow in the water like fat Roman senators in the baths. About halfway through the trip we stopped for a break and made our way up to a town to find a toilet, on the way startling a poor old lady who was having a shower “Oooh sabadeeeeeeee” (Oooh “helloooooooooo”) . In town we found a party going on and asked them if they had a toilet we could use, instead they tried to drag us inside and offer us beer and food – gotta love this country! The latter part of the boat ride had spectacular scenery, with mountains jutting out from the river (pictured), and in this setting we arrived at Nong Khiaw.

Nong Khiaw is a peaceful little town snuggled between the river and the mountains (Second picture). During our day there we walked out to see some nearby caves. Laos is absolutely covered in caves, which came in really handy from 1964 to 1973, when America waged a secret, unofficial war against in the hope of stopping the spread of communism. During these nine years, the Americans dropped an average of one plane load of bombs on the country every eight minutes, 24 hours a day, making Laos the most heavily bombed country on earth. There are still loads of unexploded ordinances in the country and we heard that four children were killed by one just a couple of weeks ago. So, during the war, Laos’ caves were an important refuge. The two we saw near Nong Khiaw served as a hospital and the bank of Luang Prabang. The bank cave in particular was very cool – a narrow passage that spiraled down into the ground.

From Nong Khiaw we traveled to Muang Ngoi Neua. Muang Ngoi is an hour upriver from Nong Khiaw and is only accessible by boat. It is a real backpacker haven. But still feels authentic and isolated (only one phone in the town). From Muang Ngoi we decided to do a two day trek and booked it with a guy called Saang. The trek started pretty uneventfully, walking through some rice paddies for about an hour, then stopping at a restaurant in a village for another hour (very frustrating – we wanted to keep going!!). Things started to get more interesting when we stopped at a village for lunch and one of the things they served was snake. In the early evening we arrived at the village where we would spend the night (Third picture is Niels and Phil at the village). For dinner, we started off at one hut, where they served up, with the standard sticky rice, fried grubs (looked like big maggots) and squirrel, all topped off with obscene amounts of lao lao. Lao lao is alcohol distilled from sticky rice, it is very strong (we heard it ranges from 20 to 80 per cent proof) and they drink it everywhere at anytime. They offered it to us constantly and it was pretty much impossible to refuse. In the dish that contained the bbq squirrel, was the squirrel’s head, and after the rest of the meat was eaten, Saang got the head, put it in one bowl, covered it in another bowl, then shook it around. When the top bowl was removed, whoever the head was pointing to had to drink a shot of lao lao – crazy. After we exhausted that hut’s supply of lao lao we were taken to another one – for more lao lao – then, to a third hut, which had a TV. According to Saang, it is only when tourists come to the village that they have the money to buy fuel to run the generator to power the tv, so the whole village packed into the hut to watch Thai and Lao karaoke videos. Before the karaoke, however, Saang sang a song himself. At first it was in Lao, so we didn’t pay much attention, but then we noticed the word America kept popping up, and the tone of the singing. After Saang finished singing in Lao, he sang the song again in English. It was asking America why they kept bombing Muang Ngoi, because there were no soldiers there, only farmers and fishermen, very moving.

The next morning, after breakfast, we were taken to the “spin the squirrel head” hut for, you guessed it, more lao lao – these people don’t know when to stop! Then we set off. We had a couple of extra companions with us on the second day. The first was a young boy – the chief’s son – who was walking to Muang Ngoi for school for the week (it was a Sunday). The kid carried with him a sack filled with rice and bamboo, which would be his food for the week. Our second companion was a dog. The day before, the other backpacker on the trek with us, Phil, mentioned in passing to Saang, that one food he hadn’t tried yet, and would like to, was dog. Saang said, alright, we’ll have dog for dinner tomorrow night. Little did we realise this would entail getting a dog from the village and walking the poor thing all the way back to Muang Ngoi with us. Needless to say, we didn’t eat any – a bit too personal!

The walk on the second day was a lot prettier than the first day, and included about 45 minutes of walking in a creek. When we got to the river we floated down for an hour in big inner tubes, then did some traditional fishing with nets. For lunch we had fish that the fishermen had caught earlier in the day (Fourth picture). The freshly barbecued fish was one of the best things we had ever tasted and, after it was finished, we played the lao lao drinking game with the fish head!!

The next day we began a marathon journey to Sam Neua. First, we got a boat back to Nong Khiaw, then we had two days of tuk tuk travel. Tuk tuk is a name that can be used to describe pretty much any type of vehicle used for public transport. In this case, they were basically utes of various sizes with a bench down each side of the tray and a roof over the top. One thing that we learnt very quickly is that they are never full. No matter how tightly you are crammed (benches packed, sacks of rice and more people in the middle, more people, luggage, chickens and ducks on top and people hanging off the back) you can ALWAYS fit another three people, a sack of rice and three wicker baskets full of live chickens. All the while the driver is hurtling at breakneck speed around blind corners (after a while, Niels actually told the driver to slow down as we didn’t want to end up at the bottom or a huge ravine, or plow into another tuk tuk driving in the same manner). But we made it. And some of the scenery along the way was amazing - on the morning of the second day it was really foggy and as we drove up into the mountains and above the fog it was clear and sunny and we could see the other mountains rising out of the fog like islands.

In Sam Neua we felt like we were really in the middle of nowhere. Wide, dusty streets, and very little English spoken. One of our favorite charades (which Niels has mastered) is squatting on the ground to mimic going to the toilet – it never fails to provide a laugh. The main point of going to Sam Neua was to visit Vieng Xai (fifth picture) – a pretty little town surrounded by limestone karasts, which is home to the Pathet Lao caves. There are about 200 caves in the area and they were home to the Lao army during the American war. Some of the caves are still decked out in furniture, and include rooms with airtight doors and Russian air filters in case of a biological attack. One cave even includs a theatre.

From Sam Neua, we caught a bus to Phonsavan. This was the first vehicle we had been on in Laos that was recognisable as a bus (sometimes they call tuk tuks busses). Still, the only place you’d see a bus like this one in Australia would be in an antique motor show. And of course, being Laos, there were live pigs on the roof.

The main reason for going to Phonsavan is to see the Plain of Jars (Sixth picture). The Plain of Jars is, funnily enough, a plain covered with big stone jars. The largest are about 3m high and weigh about six tonnes. They are about 2000 years old and believed to have been used for some sort of burial ritual. Of just as much note as the jars is the bomb craters that are visible everywhere. Of this heavily bombed country, Phonsavan is probably the most heavily bombed part. We also saw a hole where an American plane had crashed and the locals had dug up the scrap metal to use for things such as cutlery.

From Phonsavan we went to Vang Vieng, THE backpacker mecca of Laos. Vang Vieng is a super touristy town. The main street basically goes pizza shop, internet café, guesthouse, pizza shop etc. Most cafes have tvs showing episodes of Friends and the Simpsons, or DVDs. The thing to do in VV is go tubing down the river, so that’s what we did. All the way down the river there are bars selling Beer Lao and most bars have a flying fox or rope swing to lure the customers in (the deal is, you buy a beer, you get to swing). Between beer and swinging, it took us about eight hours to travel 3km.

From VV we took a kayaking (last picture) tour to the capital city, Vientiane, which is where we are now. After spending three weeks in the wilderness it is so nice to be in the city – not that it’s much of a city – no high rise buildings and really quiet and laid back but with really obvious French influence in the architecture and cuisine. Lovely cafes and boutique shops side by side with Lao markets and noodle shops. It’s been great spending a few days here, now tonight off south to the 4000 Islands, then Cambodia!

Chiang Mai by night, especially Sunday night, is very cool. Por, a Thai sax player we met in
Pai, invited Niels to play a gig in Chiang Mai last Sunday night. Because of the language
barrier we were not really sure what the gig entailed but Por had given us a rough map
showing where to meet him. After getting directions from our guest house owner we wandered
in the direction he had pointed and came across a street in the old part of the city that
had been completely closed off for the Sunday night market. The atmosphere was brilliant,
with all sorts of stalls lining the steet, which was packed with pedestrians. Every 50m or
so random buskers sat in the middle of the road, though we're not quite sure how they
avoided being trampled. The gig Niels was sitting in with must have had some status as they
actually had a street corner to themselves! The gig was outside a bar, which had posters
with info on Thailand, my favourite bit of info was on the real name of Bangkok, Groong Tep
Mahanakorn Amornrattanagosin Mahintarah Ayuttaya Mahadirokpop Nopparat Rartchatahnee Burirom
Udom Rartchaniweiht Mahasatarn Amornpimarn Awadtarnsatid Sahggatuttiya Wissanukahm Prasit.
The name apparently earns a listing in the Guiness Book of Records as the longest place name
and means The city of angels, the great city, the residence of the Emerald Buddah, the
impregnable city of God Intra, the grand capital of the world endowered with the nine
precious gems, the happy city, abounding in enourmous royal palaces which resemble the
heavenly abode where reigns the reincarnated god, a city given by Intra and built by
Wissanukarm. If you can remember the name you qualify to be born in Thailand in your next
life!So, after that piece of useful information, where were we?Oh yeah, on Monday we headed to the bus station to get a bus to Chiang Rai. After we had
bought the tickets we saw that they were for Chiang Khong instead, so, since we needed to go
to Chiang Khong the following day, and since we had just wittnessed a scene where a tourist
was yelling at the ticket sellers for giving him the wrong ticket (really, mate, we're in
THEIR country and speaking to them in English, so can you really complain if they
misunderstand you??) we decided to head to Chiang Khong.We got into CK quite late and had a quiet night and a sleep in before catching a boat across
the Mekong to Huay Xai in Laos on Tuesday morning.Probably the first thing we noticed in Laos (apart from the fact that they drive on the
right (wrong!) side of the road) was the baguettes. Laos was a French colony and the
influences are still really apparent in the architecture, language and food (the very, very
good baguettes were sooo good after three weeks of Thai bread, which is sweet and, well,
just not very nice).The next day, Wednesday, was the first day of a three day trip we had booked. The trip was
called the Gibbon Experience and it took place in a national park in Bokeo province. The
national park is the only policed one in Laos - it is protected from poachers by forest
guards, most of whom are former poachers themselves, and their wages are paid by small
groups of tourists coming to stay in the park for three days. The tourists stay in tree
houses, ours was built 40m above the ground in a giant strangler fig. The only way to get
into and out of the tree houses is by zip lines. More of these zips lines are strung through
the jungle and from ridge to ridge over valleys. The largest line is 150m high and 450m
long. There are also beautiful walks though the jungle. The Gibbon Experience gets its name
from a species of gibbon that was though to be extinct until about 1940, until it was
rediscovered in the Bokeo jungle. We were lucky enough to see some gibbons, which few
tourists do (though most at least hear them singing in the morning). Another highlight of the experience was seeing a black asiatic bear cub that is in the care on the forrest guides. The cub's mother was killed by poaches and it was found in a market place and bought to the gibbon experience camp because they have a good track record with raising orphaned animals.
Jeff, a French guy who started the Experience, is at a bit of a loss as to what to do with
the bear when it grows up (at the moment it's only two months old and has just opened its
eyes) because it will have been raised by humans but will still be a very big, potentially
dangerous animal.The trip from Huay Xai to and from the jungle was along a highway that is being constructed
that will link China with Bangkok. As it is very much in the construction stage it is
basically a big pile of dust and you can see the results of the three hour trip from the
picture of Niels on our blog (http://www.carolyncanham.blogspot.com/).We got back into Huay Xai on Friday evening and the next morning set off on a two day slow
boat trip down to Luang Prabang.we'd heard that the trip was a bit painfull (hard seats, crapmed etc) but you know a healthy
mixture of Beer Laos and Laos Laos (whisky) and good company (great bunch of people we met
on the Gibbon Experience) does wonders to make time fly, as does activities like climbing
onto the roof of the boat.The two day trip includes an overnight stop at a town called Pak Beng. Pak Beng has got to
be the drug capital of SE Asia. We quickly lost track of how many times we were apprached
with "Opium, you want opium? Weed, you want weed?" Some guys we met were even told at the
guest house they stayed at that their room rate would be much cheaper if they bought weed
off the owner. Pak Beng is probably the worse night we've had on the trip so far, the guest
house was horrible (flithy toilet and no running water) and our meal of bbq pork and sticky
rice was more like bbq fat, but hey, it's all part of the experince right?We arrived in Luang Prabang on Sunday evening tired, hungry and dirty and we wanted to find
a guest house Carly (Carolyn's friend) had recommened to us. Rather that wander aimlessly around the town we got a tuk tuk, who we paid way to much to drive us about 100m - damn! After Pak Beng the guesthouse was lovely, although anything with a shower would have been lovely. That night we
had what I think has got to be close to the best dinner of my life... it's called Sindad and
it's a cook-it-yourself bbq and soup thing. You get a bucket of hot coals on your table and
on top of that thing shaped like an upside down metal bowl with the bottom edges turned up
to make a sort of moat. You bbq the meat on the bowl bit and cook soup in the moat - so
good! After dinner we checked out the night markets and a funky little bar called the Hive,
where we got talked into joining a group of people going out to Kuam Si Waterfalls the next
day. We had been really keen to have a day of doing nothing, but decided we should take the
opportunity to join the group as making our way out there alone would be much more pricy.
Well, that was the best decision ever!! The waterfalls are SO beautiful... they look like
what resort lagoons try to look like! The area has a lot of limestone, which coats the
bottom of the waterholes and makes the water look turquoise. There are heaps of different
waterfalls and swimming pools of all sizes, places where you can jump off, dive through
waterfalls and even swing off a vine into a pool (yes, not a rope, a VINE). The limestone
also coats trees that are underwater in the wet season, which looks amazing. We ended the
afternoon with a jam, sing-a-long and beer on a wooden deck overlooking the biggest fall -
perfect!Last night there was a great thunder storm. At about 9pm this crazy wind picked up and all
the stall holders started to quickly pack up. We guessed there must have been a storm coming
so we thought, should we go back to our guest house or a bar to wait it out... we chose a
bar. After a few hours and a few drinks we decided to call it a night and halfway home,
along came the storm! So, today we are having our quiet day and we're lucky to have done it this way around cause
it's cold (jumper weather!). Love to all.Talk soon!

A shitty end to a great week

We'd just like everyone to know that this is the third time we have typed the following...
After we reluctantly left Kanchinaburi we caught an overnight train to Chiang Mai. Because we had both had such a good night sleep on the overnight bus from Krabi, we decided to save some money and get seats instead of sleepers (much to the disbelief of everyone, Thais and fellow backpackers alike).
On the train we met Karen, Shane and Louisa, three very cool people who we ended up spending the next coule of days with.
On arrival in Chiang Mai we were confronted by the owner of Chiang Mai Guesthouse, who said she had rooms for 100B. We had heard the cheaper gueshouses in CM make their money from booking tours and treks so we asked her if we would be hassled to book a tour, to which she replied "no". After checking in we spent the rest of the afternoon exploring the town and visiting the famous night markets. (Pictured is the ruins of a chedi in Chiang Mai, which was damaged by an earthquake in the 1500s.)
The next morning the two of us and Karen were waiting out the front of our guesthouse for the other two. The five of us had planned to spend the day at a nearby national park, which we were travelling to by puiblic bus. As we were waiting, the guesthouse owner rocked up with a new bus load of guests and saw us sitting there. She started accusing us of going on a tour with another company. We had already paid for the next night's accommodation and she tried to give us our money back, saying "you tour with them, you stay with them". We told her we were mearly waiting for our friends and she said "I know what you're doing, you're waiting for them to pick you us in a mini bus (the transport for tours) and then you go on tour with them". In unison the three of us yelled "WE'RE NOT GOING ON A TOUR". And she backed off and rode off on her motor bike. A short time later she came back, all appologetic (we found out later that she had riden past our friends, who were coming to meet us and were quite obviously not on a tour).
The national park we vistited is called Doi Inthanon and it includes the highest peak in Thailand. We chartered a truck to drive us to the peak and some other attractions as it was way too far to walk in a day. The peak is about 300m higher than Kosciuszko and WAY different. It has the thin, cool mountain air that was wonderful after a couple of weeks of thick, hot humidity. Unlike Australia, Thailand doesn't seem to have a treeline and the peak is covered by thick, lush vegetation, so much so that there is no view from the top. Over sites we visited in the park were some waterfalls and the King and Queen's Chedi's, temple things that were built for their highness' 60th birthdays. The chedis were surrounded by beautiful flowering gardens and man made waterfalls.
That night the five of us had a 500 tournament that lasted many big Beer Changs and three venues, which kept shutting on us during a marathon third game that ended in a draw after the third venue closed. Shane and Lousia walked us home and when we arrived at our guesthouse they needed to go to the toilet (Chang does that to you). So we let them in. In keeping with the warm and welcoming atmosphere at Chaing Mai Guesthouse, a guy who was sleeping downstairs, on guard duty we guess, woke up and had a go at us for letting them in. When we asked what was wrong with them going to the toilet, he said it would wake the guests up (he YELLED this as he SLAMMED open the metal gate, ordering them to leave).
Needless to say, we were quite happy to be leaving Chaing Mai the next day (although we had enjoyed our time there). We caught a bus to Pai, a town about 130km north west. The 130km takes about four hours by bus along narrow, windy and steep hills, actually a lovely scenic drive. Most busses in Thailand have Buddhist flower offerings on the dashboards and on this occassion our driver had rosary beads too - considering the way Thai drivers seem to loosly interperate road rules and have no qualms about overtaking on blind corners, we were glad to see he was covering all spiritual bases.
Pai is VERY touristy. We reckon on any one day 90 per cent of people there are backpackers, but it is lovely all the same. The thing to do in Pai is hire motorbikes and ride to nearby waterfalls and hot springs, so that's what we did. The motorbikes were only 100cc and had a top speed of about 80km/h. We hired a motorbike each, which we reckon made them the only two bikes in Thailand with only one person on them, the most we've seen so far is four. We also must have been in the minority wearing helmets. We hired the bikes for two days and had a great time crusing around. One of the highlights was a waterfall that passed over a smooth, slippery rock surface into a sandy pool, making a great natural waterslide that Carolyn ripped the bottom of her pants out on.
On two of our nights in Pai Niels played with a local jazz/blues band at a bar called the Bebop (pictured). The other sax player asked Niels for a lesson and Niels is playing a gig with him in Chiang Mai tonight.
The rest of our time in Pai was spent lazing around, reading, wandering around the town, eating pancakes, oh and riding elephants! On Niels' birthday we went for an elephant ride. From most pictures we've seen of elephant rides, people sit on chair things on their backs - none of that for us! We went bare back! (Very sore the next day) The elephant ride reminded us of a horse trail ride, but with less control. For example, when a horse decides to try and eat some grass at the side of the road you can generally pull its head up, but when an elephant decides to tear a whole tree out with its trunk, you've just got to let it do it (the guides yelled at them a bit, but, really, how much can you do?) The highlight of the ride (apart from watching a pair of poms getting continually sprayed by elephant snot) was at the end, when we got to take them for a bath in the river. It is so cute to see them totally submerge themselves in the water, with just the trunk, and maybe an eye, poking out. They are also trained to shake the tourists off their backs and into the water, which was heaps of fun, until Niels swallowed some of the water, which led to a shitty end to our time in Pai, in the literal sense of the term.
So now we're back in Chaing Mai. Niels is playing tonight in the street, then in a club (we think), then tomorrow we head north towards the Laos border.